Dodgers edge Mets, head home on a high note

NEW YORK – After his team scored twice in the ninth inning to take a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday afternoon, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly praised its "group execution."

Funny – a few days ago, some critics were calling for that very thing.

But singles by Andre Ethier and Juan Uribe drove in the go-ahead runs as the Dodgers won three of the last four games on a trip that began with them in the midst of a six-game losing streak, dropping starting pitchers seemingly by the day.

"It's like we talked about in Baltimore – you've gotta keep turning that page," Mattingly said after Thursday's narrow win. "After getting swept in that doubleheader (Saturday), we came back and got one in Baltimore the next day. Then we won the first game here to set the tone. Then after losing a tough one last night (in 10 innings), we bounced back and got one today.

"We've kind of got the momentum going a little bit. But that only lasts until tomorrow."

It almost didn't last through the ninth inning Thursday. Brandon League blew his first save as the Dodgers' closer a night earlier, giving up a ninth-inning run to send the game into extra innings. This time, he gave up a leadoff home run to Ike Davis that cut a two-run lead in half before closing it out.

"It's a long flight going back across the country if you just lost two series," Ethier said. "This is the type of game we weren't grinding out two weeks ago, a week ago.

"Hopefully, this is a turning point for us moving forward."

It would help if it proves to be a turning point for Ethier.

Thursday's game went into the ninth inning tied 1-1 when Nick Punto led off with a double for the Dodgers, splitting the right-center field gap. He moved to third on Adrian Gonzalez's ground out. After Matt Kemp was intentionally walked (to go with two singles and an RBI in the game), that brought Ethier up against Mets left-hander (and former Dodgers minor-leaguer) Scott Rice.

Ethier has shown some progress this season hitting against his nemesis, left-handed pitchers, but he has been one of the biggest culprits on a Dodgers team that has struggled to hit with runners in scoring position. Going into his ninth-inning at-bat, Ethier was just 2 for 21 (.095) in those situations.

"I feel like I've been having good at-bats (in those situations)," Ethier said. "I just wasn't capitalizing on that one pitch you get to get the job done. Sometimes I was getting overaggressive. Sometimes I wasn't aggressive enough.

"You can't get too amped up in those situations. You have to just focus on the task at hand. I was trying to get that ball into the outfield and get that runner in from third."

He succeeded, lining a slider from Rice into center field for the go-ahead run. Uribe followed with an eight-pitch at-bat, following off two two-strike pitches before beating out an infield single on a hard ground ball that drove in Kemp with a much-needed insurance run.

"Just really good baseball," Punto said of the ninth-inning at-bats. "Leadoff double and their job is to get me over. Adrian hit the ball hard and it almost got through. Then Andre came up with a big hit and Juan got us another one.